Snapchat is a video messaging application.

Users can take pictures or video, add a message and effects, and sent them to friends or post them to a story.

“It’s like texting, but with pictures,” Jason Waterfield, a senior at Warren County Career Center, said on Thursday.

There are many effects – filters – that can be applied to photos and videos.

Filters can change the color saturation, or add a frame, or indicate the users speed, the temperature at the time the shot was taken, or, add an image that relates to the location.

A geofilter enables users to select an image to add to a shot. The smartphone taking the image picks out the geographic location and, if there are any in the area, includes geofilters among the effects that can be added to the image.

The London Eye, among the world’s tallest Ferris wheels, has a geofilter.

Las Vegas has a geofilter.

And, thanks to Waterfield, Warren Area High School has a geofilter. “It’s an extra, fun thing to show that you’re at the high school,” he said.

Snapchat users who take pictures at the Warren County School District’s central attendance campus will be able to drag the filter onto the pic and share the combined image. It’s optional, but it’s automatically an option.

Waterfield first found out that geofilters could be submitted from the public at-large when a friend’s pic showed one. “One of my friends I met this summer at PFEW (Pennsylvania Free Enterprise Week)… her school had one,” he said. “I looked it up and found out you can submit your own.”

He made it his goal.

He also sought some advice on what the filter should look like. “I talked to my friend Tristan Boger,” Waterfield said. “He suggested we use the varsity letter.”

So, Waterfield crafted an image of the blue and white ‘W’ that represents Warren Area High School. He didn’t want to just leave it at that. So, he added the name of the mascot – Dragons – in script. “A little more interesting,” he said.

He was authorized to work on the image during class.

“I drew that picture in my pre-engineering class,” Waterfield said. “I made it on the AutoCAD system.”

“At the WCCC, we always encourage the students to apply what they are learning in class to real-life projects,” pre-engineering teacher Dan Passmore said. “Jason came in one day and said that we should create a geofilter for WAHS. He researched the requirements, designed the filter in AutoCAD to very precise specifications including file type, size, and content, submitted the design to Snapchat for approval.”

“I didn’t have any experience with creating geofilters, so it was a learning process for both of us,” Passmore said. “It was a great project.”

Unfortunately, the work had just begun.

“Four weeks ago, I submitted it for the first time,” Waterfield said.

It was not approved.

“It has to be perfect,” he said. “It has to be the correct size, visually interesting, the right file type, important to the area…”

He had to include information about who would find the geofilter useful – “my teachers, administrators, and classmates would appreciate it.”

“What I originally wanted to do was go from here down to War Memorial (Field),” Waterfield said.

That geographic area may have been unacceptably large.

‘May have been’ because Snapchat denied the filter.

Waterfield had to made edits – to the font, the area encompassed, the file size, the explanation – without knowing exactly why Snapchat turned his image down. “It’s frustrating,” he said. “I submitted it 10 times.”

The good news is that the image was approved before he thought it would be. “I never thought that they would actually accept it,” he said.

But, the tenth time was the charm.

“I got the email Thursday night” Oct. 8, he said. “‘Congratulations. Your geofilter has been approved to go live.'”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said.

There was no school Friday nor Monday.

He made a special trip to the school at 10 a.m. Friday.

“I took a random picture to see if it worked,” Waterfield said. “It did.”

He had to tell someone.

“I found Mr. (Jim) Evers,” he said. “When I first made it, he came into my class. I pulled him over. He liked it.”

“I’ve been bragging about it ever since,” Evers said.

The filter has only been up for a week, but it’s already seeing plenty of use. “I’ve seen people send me Snapchats and post it to stories,” Waterfield said. “It’s pretty cool.”

“When people use that, even when I’m out of high school, I’ll be able to look at it and say, ‘Hey, I made that,'” he said.

Waterfield already has an ambitious schedule for his next geofilter.

He’s ready to work on one for the home team’s home football stadium – War Memorial Field. “I would like to get it before the end of the football season.”